Karl Liebl

I got a couple of 5 and a couple of 9 ff below 30. Both too shappy

Stuck in grading 6 months later   Standard with press. Over 150 per book 4 books. Slow train to nowhere

On 10/23/2021 at 11:20 AM, KirbyJack said:

I do know.
Not the CGC grade, of course; but I don’t consider them to be the only opinion that matters. I’ve been grading comics for a while, too, y’know.

You have a 5.0 collection from what I’ve seen. Hmm maybe that’s too harsh let’s say 6.0. I’ll be lucky to duplicate with today’s prices. 2000 plus per book. That’s crazy talk!

On 10/23/2021 at 4:39 AM, KirbyJack said:

Does that have anything to do with the fact that you own maybe the best copy in the world?

Ummm.  These are not straw man books. He buys the top copies at great expense. What about you Kirby? I know you have all the books but not graded. Don’t you want to KNOW?  The prices getting so high maybe I can only buy one a year. It’s crazy 

On 10/8/2021 at 6:01 PM, Venomous72 said:

Found a beautiful 4.0 FF 48 for under GPA.  I think I have to go for it.  The wrap is not ideal, but it displays great and has OW pages.  Looks like it might have a little pen mark down by their feet on the right.  He is asking $2200 shipped.  What do you guys think?

It’s been graded as unmolested. I think you can buy with confidence.  I need a copy too!

Hmmm. So I bought some nice raws off eBay. Mostly 300 to 600 buck copies. Ungraded. Sent in for pressing and grading. 4 ff books. 70 buck to press and 70 to grade. Don’t mention postage. I know most come from shops and I bet they are eager to see them after they are cleaned up. They are listed as received. Then half my collection slabbed. How far can I go?

Just remember it’s going to take 6 months of your life to slab. I would start sending in your cherries now and find out the real grades instead of counting your chickens. I’m thinking a 9

On 9/19/2021 at 9:13 PM, PetuniaGrimm said:

Although at much lower grades than my FF run, I also collected all the strange tales FF crossover appearances.  Except for 110, because I’m not paying that kind of money for a crossover appearance. Here’s a couple of my favorites. 

Asbestos Man!  Haha

On 9/21/2021 at 7:28 PM, Hudson said:

Let’s do the math...  

30 calendar days to ship with fedex ground

84 calendar days to open the box

42 days to press

42 days to grade

let’s say 12 days to return by usps

210 days.

7 months, sorry I exaggerate...

or were you referring to the price as crazy?!

We are up to about 8 months for submitting 4 books for pressing and grading at over 150 buck each!  Lol!

I thought the new owners fixed the turn around times. I sent overnight books in a month ago and not received yet

On 8/27/2021 at 4:01 PM, kav said:

Thats the old kobiyashi maru gambit-no matter what I say you say "nope".

Nope. Video game packaging   Nope

How much is a copy of Ultima 3 with cloth map and ankh in mint condition worth?

On 8/27/2021 at 3:27 PM, Buzzetta said:

Glad I could help.  Let me know when you read the rest and if that answers your question. 

Are the brown brick legos edible?

On 8/27/2021 at 3:00 PM, Buzzetta said:

@comicwiz and @Bronty both have more experience with the nuances that I am going to try to explain so you guys feel free to jump in.  You two might disagree on a couple of the aspects or issues I raise but I *think* I can presently explain the basics somewhat clearly.  

Let's back off the idea of comics being art.  The original art is the art and comics are collected bound printed volumes of the art on paper.   Let's forget about comics all together because in reality, as far as I am concerned the only true graded collectable that does not interfere with the usability of the collectable is sports and gaming cards since you can flip it over and get the same experience and usability of the item regardless of whether or not it is graded. 

Grading a video game is really nothing more than grading the packaging it came in and assuming that the contents not only are there and work but that all factory issued paperwork is present.  This mentality toward collecting is very much related to MIB (Mint in Box) toy grading.  You assume that all of the contents contained in the sealed box are also mint and unbroken and were manufactured correctly.   The mentality is that to obtain a sealed box of a toy you are trying to have the most perfect representation of that sealed item as it came off the production floor. 

Now are there problems with this?  Absolutely.  Let's go back to Lego.  Check this listing out on eBay as it is the FMV going rate for this set at around $400.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/224369239367 Lego 10223, Kingdom's Joust is a representation of what everyone collects when they collect MIB samples of items and everything that can go wrong.  To continue this I am going to assume that you are all clicking the link to look at the pictures.  The year that this set arrived, Lego introduced a new plastic recipe for lack of a better word for their brown bricks.   The bricks were VERY brittle and broke easily with many of those parts finding themselves into this particular theme of sets.  I have two of them with both opened.  Lego actually addressed the problem and offered replacement parts.  Everyone learned of this problem within a couple of years.  The plastic dried out VERY quickly and would just snap.  Article LEGO Apologizes for Brittle, Reddish Brown Bricks – Assures Problem is Now Solved.

Now we have a question on that sealed $400 Lego set on eBay.  What are you buying when you buy that set?   I assure you that the set has those particular bricks in question that will snap.  Again, I know because I have two of the sets and have had to swap out the brown bricks.   Are you buying a presentation of the best model you could find off the shelf of your favorite toy?   Are you buying an actual Lego set to open and build?  If it is the second one, you can still contact Lego and they will help you out.  However, the value of the set has gone down once you open the package.

The same holds true with vintage SW Toys still sealed in the box, Transformers were not sold in window boxes, and most definitely the one thing I always tell people to stay away from, MIB GI Joe playsets which contain the most brittle plastic I have ever seen.  

With a video game you are not buying a graded and sealed game to play the same way you are not buying a graded and sealed comic to read.   It's supposed to sit on your shelf and look pretty.   However, yes, you do not know if the game will actually work just the same way that I can tell you that I have no idea if the $1,300 sealed Lego set I sold last month has problems with the brown bricks.    You won't know unless you crack it open and see.  But once you do that you no longer have a factory sealed sample of the best representation possible of the product. 

 

 

 

The stinky cheap newsprint of comics and it’s survivability make them rare and collectible. Is everything a collectible?  In a 1000 years maybe!  People bought video games for the game not the package.  Comic books are not the same. I just think it’s silly that video game packaging is worth millions. More than action comics 1 even!  More than any collectible perhaps!  I’ll sell you a vacuum cleaner catalog from 1952 for 400000. Deal?

On 8/27/2021 at 2:58 PM, COI said:

The "art". 

Exactly. 

On 8/27/2021 at 2:54 PM, COI said:

Nah, they were originally intended for kids to consume, then toss.

What was to be consumed by the kid?

Hamurabi I beg to report to you sir!  There has been a plague and famine and half of your population is gone!

excellent!

old video games stink!

On 8/27/2021 at 2:32 PM, Bronty said:

Would you say that comic books were created as throw away media for children? 

People buy comics for the story and art. People buy video games for the game. If you are buying it for the package you have a screw loose. Collect bottle caps or something....

On 8/23/2021 at 6:55 PM, Buzzetta said:

There is also something called "the fear of missing out."

All it takes is one impatient person to "raise GPA" for everyone else.  All it takes is one person that is willing to hold fast to find that one person who is afraid to miss out to capitalize on it.   I did something like this in an ethical way a few months ago where I took a book that I bought on Comiclink for $50 that no one seemed to have.  As there was no real data on GPA on the book, I went fishing and I put it on eBay for $325.  It sold for that price with the buyer also paying GSP to get it along with the regular shipping.

Once I sold that one graded copy, I saw a raw copy show up on Heritage.  People used my sale as a benchmark to assess how they should bid on the book and the raw copy sold for about the same in about the same grade on Heritage. Why bring this up?  That was with one book.  I went fishing and my sale influenced the market on at least two future sales.

Imagine using something like that to overtly manipulate the market.   Imagine what someone could do with multiples of the same book, listing them in multiple places on multiple exchanges and having a friend make an offer on a ridiculous asking price that is then turned down.  Everyone will see that the owner is turning down those prices so in order to get it, they must be willing to open the wallet even more.  It is basically shill bidding an exchange listing and that is what I think is going on with some comic books, and what is most likely going on with some games along with artificial inflation and trading things back and forth between the same people.

People are establishing artificial benchmarks in order to gain legitimized sales and basically concealing the artificial benchmarks between those legitimized sales. 

I do not understand collecting and grading the throw away packaging on digital media. At least comic books are intended as art to begin with

On 8/18/2021 at 6:08 AM, KirbyJack said:

I own this book in better condition but it has a marvel chip and I don’t want to slab it. Am I bad?

On 8/19/2021 at 7:34 PM, Jkelly said:

It's honestly psychotic. I can't grasp why I continue to submit. I have an excel tracker I built to get an idea where my books are based on their ETAs and my most recent pre screen batch that they received Monday wont get back to me til February of next year if CGCs estimations are correct. 

Send them walk through. Problem solved!

On 8/19/2021 at 5:18 PM, grendelbo said:

A few I can immediately think of:

1. Dumping too many comicbooks as drek 10 years or so ago. Basically gave away a few good Copper/Modern issues like NM98 and many title runs.

2. Many of us remember Bronze books in the $1 bin and there are a few I passed on that are now significant. She-Hulk 1 comes to mind.

3. Passing on an ASM1 when I was 15. I had the $100 but I was saving for a small black & white TV/radio combo to go in my bedroom.

4. Should have gotten more ECs in the 90s.

5. Never got into GA and now I'll only cover-gaze.

EC’s were expensive in the 70’s and 80’s!  Early Fantastic Four have eclipsed them!  It’s all about time and being happy with what you have. All those EC books have high grade reprints and anthologies that are very enjoyable. I love them